[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":130},["ShallowReactive",2],{"lesson-/academy/sdr/cold-email-deliverability":3},{"path":4,"data":5,"html":65,"toc":66,"prev":79,"next":85,"track":90},"/academy/sdr/cold-email-deliverability",{"title":6,"description":7,"primaryQuery":8,"secondaryQueries":9,"module":14,"order":14,"tier":15,"intent":16,"asset":17,"publishedAt":20,"author":21,"reviewedAt":22,"relatedTool":23,"challenge":24,"exercise":49,"sources":52},"Cold Email Deliverability for Beginners: SPF, DKIM, DMARC (Why You Land in Spam)","Your cold email lands in spam when the receiving mailbox can't prove it's really from your domain and sees signals of bulk sending. Fixing deliverability means authenticating your email (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), protecting your sending reputation, and sending like a person, not a list. This page is the plain-English setup checklist.","cold email deliverability",[10,11,12,13],"why do my emails go to spam","email warm up","spf dkim dmarc explained","cold email spam",5,"B","informational",{"type":18,"title":19},"checklist","The cold-email deliverability setup checklist (SPF/DKIM/DMARC in plain English)","2026-09-10","closers","2026-09-24",null,{"type":25,"id":26,"brief":27,"buckets":28,"items":31},"sort","m5-l6-deliverability-bucket","Six things you might do while sending cold email. Sort each into 'Helps deliverability' or 'Hurts deliverability'.",[29,30],"Helps deliverability","Hurts deliverability",[32,35,38,41,44,47],{"key":33,"text":34},0,"Blast a brand-new domain with hundreds of identical cold emails on day one",{"key":36,"text":37},1,"Keep a clean list and remove hard bounces and spam complaints quickly",{"key":39,"text":40},2,"Ignore bounces and keep emailing the same invalid addresses",{"key":42,"text":43},3,"Send from a warmed-up domain at modest, consistent daily volume",{"key":45,"text":46},4,"Publish SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records so receiving mailboxes can verify the email is genuinely from your domain",{"key":14,"text":48},"Buy or scrape a list of addresses that never opted in and never confirmed",{"prompt":50,"successCriteria":51},"Sort the six behaviors above into 'helps deliverability' and 'hurts deliverability', then write one sentence naming the single biggest cause of emails landing in spam.","You can name it without hedging: mailboxes put you in spam when they can't verify you (no authentication) or you look like a bulk sender (dirty lists, sudden volume, complaints). Fix those and deliverability follows.",[53,57,61],{"label":54,"url":55,"vintage":56},"RFC 7208 — Sender Policy Framework (SPF) for authorizing use of domains in email","https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7208","2014",{"label":58,"url":59,"vintage":60},"RFC 7489 — Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC)","https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7489","2015",{"label":62,"url":63,"vintage":64},"RFC 6376 — DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures","https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6376","2011","\u003Cp>Cold email deliverability is the answer to one question: \u003Cstrong>does your email actually reach the inbox, or does the mailbox file it as spam?\u003C/strong> It lands in spam when the receiving server can't prove the message is really from your domain, or when it sees signals of bulk sending — a dirty list, sudden volume, spam complaints, bounced addresses. The fix has three parts: authenticate your domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), protect your sending reputation, and send like a person at a sane pace. You can write the perfect \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/cold-email/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cold email\u003C/a>, and none of it matters if it never reaches the person. This page is the plain-English setup checklist a \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/bdr/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BDR\u003C/a> uses before scaling outreach.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"why-your-email-lands-in-spam\">Why your email lands in spam\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Mailboxes decide your fate in milliseconds on three things:\u003C/p>\n\u003Col>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Authentication — can they prove it's you?\u003C/strong> Three records prove your domain owns the sending: SPF says which servers are allowed to send for you, DKIM cryptographically signs the message, and DMARC tells receivers what to do when the other two fail. Set all three, and your mail stops looking like a spoof.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Reputation — do they trust your domain?\u003C/strong> New domains start with no reputation. Complaints, hard bounces, and spam-trap hits push it down; steady, wanted mail pushes it up.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Behavior — do you look like a bulk sender?\u003C/strong> One person sending 60 short, varied emails looks human. A domain firing 500 identical emails at bought addresses looks like a bot.\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ol>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"the-setup-checklist-here-is-the-asset\">The setup checklist — here is the asset\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Run a new sending domain through this before you turn up volume:\u003C/p>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>[ ] \u003Cstrong>Publish SPF.\u003C/strong> A TXT record listing the servers allowed to send for your domain (e.g. your ESP). Only include servers you actually use.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>[ ] \u003Cstrong>Publish DKIM.\u003C/strong> A signature key that mailboxes can verify, so they know the message wasn't altered and came from you.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>[ ] \u003Cstrong>Publish DMARC.\u003C/strong> A policy that says what to do with mail that fails SPF or DKIM — start by monitoring, then move to a reject policy once real mail authenticates.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>[ ] \u003Cstrong>Verify alignment.\u003C/strong> Send a test and confirm SPF and DKIM pass and align to your root domain — most cold-email problems are misaligned subdomains.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>[ ] \u003Cstrong>Warm up the domain.\u003C/strong> Ramp volume over a few weeks from a handful of sends a day, not hundreds on day one. Warm-up is a reputation build, not a magic bullet.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>[ ] \u003Cstrong>Send from a real, human account.\u003C/strong> A custom domain and a real sender beat a free webmail address every time.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>[ ] \u003Cstrong>Use a clean, confirmed list.\u003C/strong> Build your \u003Ca href=\"/academy/sdr/how-to-build-a-prospect-list/\">prospect list\u003C/a> from research, not bought or scraped data, and remove hard bounces promptly.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>[ ] \u003Cstrong>Keep an eye on complaints and bounces.\u003C/strong> If either climbs, slow down, clean the list, and fix the \u003Ca href=\"/academy/sdr/cold-email-subject-lines/\">subject lines\u003C/a> and copy that read as spam.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>[ ] \u003Cstrong>Make opting out easy.\u003C/strong> A working unsubscribe is a \u003Ca href=\"/academy/sdr/cold-email-laws/\">legal requirement\u003C/a> and a reputation signal — recipients who can leave don't need to hit "report spam."\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ul>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"what-warm-up-actually-is-and-isn-t\">What warm-up actually is (and isn't)\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>"Email warm-up" sounds like a button, but it's a reputation build: you send small, increasing, genuinely-opened mail so mailboxes learn your domain is real and wanted. It does not rescue a dirty list or make spam-shaped mail deliver. The honest version is: authenticate properly, send to a clean list of researched contacts, keep volume steady, and let weeks of consistent behavior build trust. Every spam-filter trick you skip in favor of that is a reputation debt you'll pay in the inbox placement rate.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"next-the-email-that-s-worth-delivering\">Next: the email that's worth delivering\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Deliverability gets you the open; the message earns the reply. Once your mail is landing, make it worth reading with the \u003Ca href=\"/academy/sdr/cold-email-template/\">cold email template\u003C/a> and the \u003Ca href=\"/academy/sdr/cold-email-subject-lines/\">subject lines that earn opens\u003C/a>, then scale it into a proper \u003Ca href=\"/academy/sdr/cold-email-follow-up/\">follow-up sequence\u003C/a>.\u003C/p>\n",[67,70,73,76],{"id":68,"text":69},"why-your-email-lands-in-spam","Why your email lands in spam",{"id":71,"text":72},"the-setup-checklist-here-is-the-asset","The setup checklist — here is the asset",{"id":74,"text":75},"what-warm-up-actually-is-and-isn-t","What warm-up actually is (and isn't)",{"id":77,"text":78},"next-the-email-that-s-worth-delivering","Next: the email that's worth delivering",{"path":80,"title":81,"description":82,"module":14,"order":45,"kind":83,"practiceCall":23,"core":84},"/academy/sdr/cold-email-laws","Cold Email Laws: CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and What You Can Actually Send","Cold email to a business contact is legal in the US without prior permission — CAN-SPAM requires honesty and an easy opt-out, not opt-in. You must use a truthful subject and sender, include a real physical postal address, and honor unsubscribe requests within 10 business days. Emailing someone in the EU or UK adds GDPR duties. This page is a compliance checklist, not legal advice.","order",true,{"path":86,"title":87,"description":88,"module":14,"order":89,"kind":83,"practiceCall":23,"core":84},"/academy/sdr/linkedin-connection-requests","LinkedIn Connection Request Message: 10 Templates That Get Accepted","A LinkedIn connection request note gets accepted when it gives one specific, honest reason to connect and makes no pitch. You get roughly 300 characters of custom note — enough for a researched reason, not for a sales message. These 10 templates by scenario show the accepted shape for a referral, a trigger, a post, a same-event, and more.",6,{"slug":91,"title":92,"shortTitle":93,"crumb":94,"path":95,"positioning":96,"totalLessons":97,"modules":98},"sdr","Certified Sales Development Representative (CSDR)","SDR/BDR Certification","SDR Certification","/academy/sdr","The free certification for getting your first sales job — no degree, no experience, no upsell.",58,[99,102,105,109,113,116,119,123,126],{"id":36,"name":100,"lessonCount":89,"description":101},"The Role","What an SDR actually does, whether it’s for you, and the sales career path it opens — 6 core lessons.",{"id":39,"name":103,"lessonCount":42,"description":104},"Getting In With No Experience","Land your first sales job with no experience or degree — a 30-day plan — 3 core lessons.",{"id":42,"name":106,"lessonCount":107,"description":108},"Prospecting and Research",8,"Find the right accounts and contacts to reach — 8 lessons.",{"id":45,"name":110,"lessonCount":111,"description":112},"Cold Calling",11,"Make cold calls without freezing up — 11 core lessons.",{"id":14,"name":114,"lessonCount":107,"description":115},"Cold Email and LinkedIn","Write cold emails and LinkedIn messages that get replies — 8 core lessons.",{"id":89,"name":117,"lessonCount":14,"description":118},"Conversations: Discovery and Qualification","Run discovery calls and qualify real buyers — 5 core lessons.",{"id":120,"name":121,"lessonCount":42,"description":122},7,"The Tool Stack","The tools that run an SDR’s daily workflow — 3 core lessons.",{"id":107,"name":124,"lessonCount":89,"description":125},"Money: Comp, Commission and Quota","SDR salary, OTE, commission and quotas — 6 lessons.",{"id":127,"name":128,"lessonCount":107,"description":129},9,"Getting Hired","Resume, interview answers, offer negotiation, and the certification assessment — 8 lessons.",1792888518431]